


The Polygamy of Harry and Ginny

by dragyn42



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24671683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragyn42/pseuds/dragyn42
Summary: The traditionalists want Harry to marry...
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	The Polygamy of Harry and Ginny

“Harry Potter, we have brought you before us this day to object to your engagement to Ginevra Molly Weasley.”

“My… engagement? You want to publicly protest my getting married to Ginny? A pureblood?” asked Harry, his tone not as much one of surprise as might have been expected, but rather the mock-surprise one uses when dealing with a small child.

“Before this goes further,” said Hermione, her face a mask of stately propriety, “As the duly elected representative for the external oversight of the Conservative Values Preservation and Advocacy Committee, I must ask: is the committee sure that this is an issue they wish to pursue? Of the required paperwork, there have been no notices of intent, no forms of cultural expectation filed, no…”

She was cut off by the committee’s chair (some pureblooded lord that should probably have been in prison) who snapped, “We are free to act as we see fit, Mu…iss Granger. The Wizengamot has provisioned us the task of making sure new and progressive changes to our laws do not blot out completely the older, conservative values.”

“Is marriage between a witch and wizard a ‘new and progressive’ change?” asked Harry. He turned towards Ginny cocked his eyebrow in askance, “Am I missing something?”

“Maybe it’s because we’re young?” she answered.

“I thought marrying young was the wizarding way,” he responded.

“Mr. Potter, your sarcasm notwithstanding, your marriage to Ms. Weasley would have several repercussions that would deeply effect our traditions.”

“Do you have a non-traditional way of getting married I was unaware of, dear?” asked Harry.

“Well, we might have to discuss the white dress, of course,” was her reply. A brief sound that may have been a snicker issued from the end of the table where an elderly gentleman sat, his face currently inscrutable.

“Harry,” Hermione interjected, “behave. Now, might we please know the nature of your objections instead of beating around the shrubbery with your grandstanding?”

“It has come to our attention that Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley are quite devoted and monogamous. Unfortunately, this will not allow Mr. Potter to meet the expectations and responsibilities as laid out by the traditions he has agreed to follow.”

Meeting Ginny’s eyes, Harry lifted an eyebrow, but his fiancée merely shrugged. He looked at Hermione next, and she responded with a resigned breath. This was clearly going in the direction she had figured. He flashed her a quick grin.

“Mr. Potter, it is known that prior to his death, the previous Lord Black made sure that the mantle would pass to you and not the Malfoy branch of the family.”

“Yes?”

“You have a responsibility to continue that line. As Ms. Weasley has stated loudly and repeatedly, she is quite proud to be taking the Potter name. Therefore, she is unsuited to pass on the Black name.”

Harry stared at the man for several moments before responding with a laconic, “Riiiiiiight.”

“This is serious, Mr. Potter.”

“Let me guess: this august committee has in mind the perfect witches, all associated with proper families, to help continue both their own pedigrees and the lineages of my houses, accepting as they will that other witches will be involved in perpetuating lineages, which is the focus of this grievance.”

“Of course. It will be the best way to satisfy the conservatives. You have agreed to do so to help maintain our culture.”

“Actually,” interjected Hermione, pulling a sheet of parchment from a smart, leather folio case that lay on the tabletop at her right hand. The parchment displayed all the hallmarks of officious Ministry paperwork, and held a variety of stamps and signatures, including Harry’s.

Hermione continued, reading from the parchment, “He agreed to ‘…abide, within his ability, by the traditions and customs of the culture, as long as they do not contrast with the more liberal views…’ he espouses. He agreed to do so to ‘…prove to the conservative factions that new ideas will not destroy their culture…’, and to help muggleborns and those from a more liberal upbringing see that ‘…there are places for wizarding traditions that will not oppress them or destroy…their lives.’ He agreed to it because he _himself_ was interested in discovering more of the culture he has adopted as his own. At no time did he agree that he would simply do what you said was best in the name of maintaining a culture he was looking to help change.”

“And what you say is best is to have children with multiple women, in direct opposition to my love for my _pureblood_ fiancée, all in a clear attempt to place me into marriages under your influence, and I’m supposed to take this seriously?” asked Harry.

“Already you misunderstand us. _You_ , the singular _Mr. Potter_ , will not have children with multiple women. _You_ will continue the Potter line. _Lord Black_ will continue the Black line. They are separate individuals.”

“Ah, my apologies. I think I understand now. In the eyes of the law, each of my titles indicates a separate person, and each one must carry forth it’s bloodline.”

“You picked that up with surprising alacrity.” His voice was laced with suspicion.

“And lucky for you I did!” Harry responded, only to have Hermione smack her own forehead with the palm of her hand. “Now that I understand the problem, I’m certain I have a solution!”

“Mr. Potter, I-”

“Ginny!” continued Harry, not letting the obsequious man get a foot hold in the conversation. “Please enlighten me: who is the _heir_ to the Prewett line?”

“Why, that would be me,” she answered.

“As the youngest-” the chair attempted to interject.

“And why is that, Ginny?”

“Well, as the male line ended with the deaths of my uncles – Gideon and Fabian Prewett – the line now follows my mother, the remaining heir, to her daughter, and will, in a peculiarity of the Prewett line, continue matrilineally unless and until a lack of a female descendant necessitate a return to the male lineage.”

“Wonderful!” Harry gave a huge smile to Hermione, who was very clearly biting her lip and trying not to roll her eyes. “Heir Apparent Prewett, who is legally not in any way the person Ginny Weasley, or the future Ginny Potter, it would be my greatest honor if you would accept to join with the Family Black through the valued tradition of matrimony. What say you?”

“Yes,” was her simple response.

“Now wait a minute! A betrothal of this type would require the appro-”

He was cut off when Hermione dropped a parchment on the table surface, an agreement to betrothal, upon the acceptance by the heir apparent, and signed by Molly Weasley as the current matriarch of the Prewett line.

“Was there anything else?” asked Hermione.

The members of the committee, with the exception of the elderly gentleman at the end whose face remained inscrutable, though his eyes appeared to ever so slightly crinkle at the corners, glared at the trio across the table from them, and none harder than the chairman carrying out their proposals.

“As a matter of fact,” the chair continued, “Mr. Potter, in the defeat of Tom Marvolo Riddle, you became heir by conquest to the line of Gaunt. As one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the same as the line of Black-”

“Oh! That reminds me! Lord Gaunt,” interrupted Ginny. “I wish to bring to you a matter of utmost urgency in the hopes that we can settle cordially and amicably.”

“Ms. Weasley, this is not the time to-”

“Matters of attack on members of families of the Sacred Twenty-Eight are to be settled at any time the victim deems appropriate, as long as in the presence of at least one other member lord, _as is tradition_.” Ginny stared at the committee in askance, but the only response was an ever so slight nod of approval from the elder at the far end of the table. “Lord Gaunt, in the presence of the entirely separate legal person Lord Black as witness, I bring to you the matter of grievous attack in the form of long term and continued mental possession on the underaged person of Heir Apparent Prewett by your predecessor.”

“I see,” said Harry. “And is there any reason that these charges are being brought on behalf of Heir Apparent Prewett, and not also by Ms. Weasley, whom I’m lead to understand was also possessed, and not the same way as she is entirely a separate legal person?”

“I have it on good authority from the separate legal personage of Ms. Weasley that she feels the atrocities of her youth, as horrific as they were, helped her grow into the powerful, confident woman she has become, and believes, in fact, that she would not have found her way to engagement with the person Harry Potter were the events not to have happened. She is willing to let the matter drop. Heir Apparent Prewett, however, is not.”

Hermione quickly and quite obviously slid a sheet of parchment over the table to Harry, who picked it up and made a great show of reading it. Once done, he stated, “After consultation with trusted advisors, I have concluded that, given the relative destituteness of the Gaunt family and emptiness of its coffers, the only thing of appreciable import we can offer is the Gaunt family itself, its Lordship granted not to Ginny Weasley, who has removed herself from these matters, but to the Prewett heir, who is of equal footing as the Gaunt family as a companion member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.”

“Such a transfer of title demands signatures from greater than half the active or remaining family members of the Sacr-”

Once more, Hermione placed a sheet of parchment on the tabletop. This one contained a number of signatures – including the expected names of Weasley, Black, Prewett, and Gaunt, as well as others like Longbottom, Abbot, Shacklebolt, and Macmillan – all from recognizable members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight (whose numbers had been reduced both by time and most recently by the war) and were clearly of a majority.

“Very well,” growled the chair, still intent on barreling forward with their plans. “There is the matter of you being the newly discovered heir of the ancient and notable Peverell line. A line of such importance should not be lost to history. The Lord Peverell will require-”

“Lady Gaunt!” announced Harry, causing Hermione to bury her face in her hands, though it did little to hide the shaking of her shoulders. “I am but a poor lord, absent these many years, my family’s treasures lost to time. But your beauty entrances me, even more so than the striking countenances of both Ms. Weasley and Heir Apparent Prewett; your spirit invigorates me, and I care not for your lack of riches. Would you favor me with your hand in marriage, that we might lead our families to a brighter, more prosperous future?”

“I…” stuttered Ginny her eyes shining. “I never thought anyone would look beyond the impoverished state of my family left me by my forebearers. You have, this day, made me happy beyond my wildest dreams. Of course I will accept your proposal!”

Taking a deep breath and donning her straight-laced expression again, Hermione stared down the committee and asked, practically daring them, “Are there any more?”

The committee chair looked ready to chew rocks, his fervor and need to win practically radiating from his eyes. “In summoning and wielding the sword of Godri-”

“Hey!” objected Harry. “Neville did that too!”

“You were first,” responded the chair. “The first in centu-”

“We could just refuse it,” said Ginny.

“Let Neville have it?” asked Harry.

“I mean, why not?”

“Think they’d let us?”

“Probably not.”

“You know, with Gaunt, you also got Slytherin.”

“Oooh, that’s right.”

“Wanna join the lines?”

“You mean Gryffindor and Slytherin, right?”

“Of course. I, Lord Gryffindor, would never impose upon Ms. Weasley, Heir Apparent Prewett, or Lady Gaunt to violate their engagements to the men of their own choosing.”

“Exactly what I’d expect of a _proper_ , traditional pureblood.”

“I’m grateful for the compliment.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So, we’ll marry?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Great.” Harry looked up at the committee, his face a picture of calm confidence. The committee, on the other hand, were staring at the couple in abject disgust, except for the elder gentleman at the end of the table who seemed to have an appreciative smile. “We done now?”

This time, the chair was silent. Harry waited for a good ten count before deciding that nothing more was forthcoming and that they were, in fact, done. “Wonderful! We really should meet more often so I can continue my education on traditional wizarding culture.”

Together, he and Ginny stood, turned towards the door, and made their way out, holding hands.

“That didn’t take near as long as I expected,” commented Harry. “Any ideas for the rest of the afternoon?”

“Well, we could go and see how many other white dresses I may or may not need for all these extra weddings I suddenly find myself having.”

“Oh! That’s an _outstanding_ idea!”

As they left, Hermione grabbed all the various parchments on the table, stacked them neatly, and placed them in her leather folio case. She stood, indulged herself with a sanctimonious smirk to the committee, and parted with a simple, “Good day, gentlemen,” before following her friends from the room.

**Author's Note:**

> In my head, these are the same Harry and Ginny from the Yurik stories, just a bit earlier. Maybe I'll visit them again.


End file.
